Monday, January 31, 2011

An ululation (aka ololuge or ololygmos) is a long, wavering, high-pitched sound resembling the howl of a dog or wolf with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid movement of the tongue and the uvula. The term ululation is an onomatopoeic word derived from Latin. It is produced by moving the tongue, rapidly, from left to right repetitively in the mouth while producing a sharp sound. -- Wikipedia.

"The Three Amigos" at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. From left to right: David Codrea, Len Savage and an old fat guy with a cane.

Folks,

It has been a long day.

When I got home this evening I received this from someone in the government:

Congratulations on staging a fine opera. I know I don't know all of what it took to pull it off, and can't imagine it, but have some notions of the difficulties. It worked because the right stuff aligned.

There's gonna be a lot of sore pussies at ATF --- not only is a week pretty short notice for a briefing, the prospect of getting salaries withheld for lying will get some attention, and ATF may try and lie anyway. But I doubt it will work, because I doubt the ATF Special Agents will go along with it, and there's no way to fool them.

Lying to Congress is as serious as it gets --- Congress could and would cut off funding for all of ATF, if that sort of thing persisted after the rattling of perjury sabers.

I noticed there are different versions of the Mexican press story, some short, some abridged; no telling what's up with that, but at this point that is a detail.

I sent the letters to a Washington Post reporter tonight. . .(REDACTED) . . .

Again, congratulations.

I was not the only recipient. It also went to the two other amigos pictured above, and for good reason. This was a group effort in applied karma.

I'll tell you flat out, I've been grinning like a chimp, to use my Grandpa Vanderboegh's phrase, since I got the Grassley letters this morning and posted them, scooping everybody including the Associated Press. So too, I suspect, have the other two amigos. So too are a lot of people, both within and without the government. This day has been a long time coming.

Today was a textbook case of not-so-instant Karma at the tipping point of the perpetual scandal that is ATF. And I'll be darned if I don't enjoy the screaming coming from the fifth floor. Waldo and others report that there are a number of people in ATF HQ, Main Justice and even the White House who are ululating in agony and thrashing around like their hair was on fire. Or perhaps it is only their pants.

I also heard early this evening from an experienced lobbyist well connected to the new Congress. That there will be ATF oversight hearings -- dealing with not only the death of Brian Terry and the Project Gunwalker scandal but with the whole panoply of ATF scandals mentioned in these pages over the past two years -- is said to be a bet-the-farm certainty.

And there is so much to look into. Let's count a few:

** Project Gunwalker and the death of Brian Terry (and the coverup of the circumstances of same) as well as the failure to apprise the Mexican government over the objections of ATF's own Mexico City attache.

** The framing and incarceration of David Olofson highlighting the scandal that is the lack of ATF standard testing procedures and regulatory transparency.

** The "economic Wacos" perpetrated by the ATF on people who had the gall to testify against them as expert witnesses in court or just because the agency didn't like their political opinions, epitomized by the case of Len Savage, including (but not limited to) regulatory harassment, knowing use of unreliable snitches, physical threats and intimidation, corrupt and unethical ex parte communications with federal judges.

** The profligate waste of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of an agenda, including most spectacularly the estimated more than a million dollars spent chasing a stuffed child's toy by the name of Ramsey A. Bear for almost two years, who a well-placed NFATCA snitch told them was an associate of Len Savage.

** The scandal that is the NFRTR, which the ATF always testifies under oath in prosecutions is accurate when they know damn well it is not. Such serial perjuries have sent more than one innocent man to jail over the years.

** The South Korean Garand rifle case, where the ATF persuaded the State Department to halt the importation of collector rifles based on a deliberately contrived report that such rifles were the preferred weapon of gang-bangers, even though they knew this wasn't the case and that such rifles were being sold by the federal government itself to marksmen and collectors through the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

** The systematic victimization of their own street agents who either ran afoul of out-of-control supervisors or who were trying to blow the whistle on agency mistakes. The website CleanUpATF.org is full of such incidents which up until now have been pooh-poohed by the agency and largely ignored by the press.

** The abuse, in the above attacks on street agents, of the EEOC process and the hired "legal experts" used to skew the process in the agency's favor.

** The gang of recidivist criminals that is the ATF Chief Counsel's Office, who throughout the cases above and others, never fail to sacrifice law and justice on the twin demi-god altars of their own anti-firearm agenda and personal internal power over the clueless directors as they come and go. It is the CCO which really runs the agency and is responsible for its current scandalous nadir.

David Olofson and family in a photo taken at the federal prison where he was incarcerated after being framed by ATF Agent Jody Keeku.

Those are a few of the scandals waiting to be ripped open under oath. There are others. Which brings me back to The Three Amigos.

We each first met the others at that Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot which now seems like ancient history, though it was but a couple of years ago. David was by then an experienced firearm columnist and blogger. Len was legend in the firearms design and Class III community. I was a pissed off scribbler with a notorious past of waging cold war against federal bureaucracy in the furtherance of liberty. I remember sitting on the grass underneath a tree and talking with them about the case which excited our mutual contempt and outrage -- the framing of David Olofson.

David had loaned a semi-auto rifle to a young man who later would prove to have been an ATF snitch. Conveniently, when the young man took it to the range (without David being present), it malfunctioned after a couple hundred rounds and began to double or triple uncontrollably, firing out-of-battery, a dangerous condition. Jody Keeku, the ATF agent in charge of the case, sent the rifle to the Firearms Technology Branch in West Virginia for testing. They found it to be a malfunctioning semi-auto rifle, not a machine gun. Keeku told them to retest it using soft-primer ammunition. Told what to find, the FTB guys "found" it to be an automatic weapon and Olofson was charged with transferring a full-auto weapon in violation of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

David Olofson was represented by a federal public defender who, in my opinion (and he may sue me if he likes), was certainly ineffective and incompetent and possibly bought by the prosecution.

Len had been called late to the case as an expert witness. The judge, at the insistence of the ATF, refused to allow Len to even disassemble the weapon, let alone test it.

Not surprisingly, David Olofson was sent to federal prison.

Thus it was the Olofson case which brought me off the sidelines and the three of us together. The Three Amigos (I forget who used the term first, probably David) were more the "Three Guys Walking In The Same General Direction Over A Rickety Bridge," especially at first. Each of us had sources and strengths that complimented the others. Yet, our actions were by no means perfectly coordinated. Not hardly. As the inevitable point man, I often did and said things that made the others blanch in disagreement, usually after the fact. There were things that Len, as both an expert witness and subject of ATF court action, could not and would not tell me. There were other times when both he and David chided me for jumping on a fact or issue too hard. Len's cautions to me were famous and sometimes painful, again, usually after the fact. David's also. Along the way between then and now we Three Amigos added other members of what I have called "the willing coalition of Lilliputians" until we number in the dozens. We don't agree with one another on everything. Some, especially the street agents of the ATF, would say that they disagree with me on most things.

But there were certain things that we all agreed upon -- simple justice, the truth, the antiseptic quality of sunlight and the venality of the agenda-driven snake pit that was the Chief Counsel's Office. In every injustice perpetrated by the ATF hierarchy, there -- for those who looked close enough -- were the fingerprints of the CCO. Keeku could not have done what she did without the willing assistance of the CCO. The CCO directed the "economic Wacos" against Len Savage and others. The CCO perverted the EEOC process to attack street agent whistleblowers.

And added to this was the keen insight of Pete at WRSA, who was also underneath that tree that day in Kentucky: that no one, and I mean, NO ONE, really likes crooked lawyers, not even their own spouses and/or mistresses.

So we set out, we Three Amigos, simply sharing information, not wholly trusting one another then but united in common cause exemplified by the Olofson injustice. Gradually we built a very complete understanding of how the CCO machine worked and came to understand that its overweening arrogance was its fundamental weakness.

They were arrogant because no one of either political party had ever held them to account. They were above the law. They, in their own minds, WERE the law. So as bad as the Project Gunwalker scandal and the death of BPA Terry is, it is merely the latest expression of the corrupt practices of the senior executives and, especially, the Chief Counsel's Office of the ATF.

When they are called to testify under oath in the near future, they could all benefit from the profound wisdom expressed by the great American philosopher Frank Zappa in 1965.

Do you love it?Do you hate it?There it is,The way you made it.

And to Jody Keeku, wherever she now is, I would add, "How do you like David Olofson's revenge?"

Mike VanderboeghThe alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters

This is one of the allegations in a network by employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives

El Diario de El Paso

Sunday, January 30, 2011 | 8:25:59 AMEl Paso, Texas.

Contrary to its policy to stop it, America would be allowing the smuggling of firearms into Mexico intentionally during investigations conducted and the neighboring country without knowing it.

This is one of the allegations have emerged recently in a network by employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (ATF, for its acronym in English), dissatisfied with irregularities alleged to have committed the federal agency. The allegations of arms trafficking were ratified by a source in El Paso. In CleanUpATF.org blog has reported anonymously, since the ATF supposedly "gives the green light to U.S. gun dealers to sell weapons to suspects, until the officers" inflated "statistics of seizures of weapons to justify the millionaire budget federal agency.

ATF officials in Washington, DC rejected the assumptions and declined comment on the blog.

The smuggling of weapons and weak U.S. laws to control their sale and use have been in the public eye since early January in Arizona a man killed six people and left 14 injured, including Congressman Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Last week the Washington Post criticized President Barack Obama to omit the subject in his report on the State of the Union. "On Tuesday, the president left out an important opportunity to talk about why weapons sensible regulations, including those that prohibit the type of high capacity magazine used by the handle of Arizona, should again be a national priority," according to its editorial published Thursday.

Also this week, as part of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the former U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed his concern to his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, the constant flow of high-powered weapons purchased in the United States going to Mexico which fall into the hands of criminals. "America will never change its current stance on the right of citizens to own a gun, but it has a responsibility to prevent arms trafficking and international interstate," he told El Diario de El Paso an ATF employee, who asked his name not be published, experience or position within the federal agency for fear of reprisals.

Charged that the ATF has committed irregularities, such as allowing smuggling of arms to Mexico, during the course of research known as "gunwalkers." He explained that these investigative undercover agents "walk left" or "go" money or buying or selling arms to middlemen and smugglers "ant" to give the "big fish" or leader of a criminal organization.

But many times, the same agents, instead of confiscating the weapons sold to them at the border on U.S. soil to the smugglers, or stop them, they let him go to Mexico.This "controlled delivery" occurs in Arizona and Texas, where they are usually the weapons used by drug cartels and confiscated in Mexico, he said. Worse, he said, is that the Government of Mexico know that the above is happening, noting that when agents try to expose their heads this alleged irregularity, are removed from their posts.

So have reported on the blog CleanUpATF.org several ATF employees who say they are dissatisfied with the abuse, fraud and federal agency policies. The "blogger" identified as "1desertrat" reported in mid-January that a special agent allegedly Phoenix "has approved more than 500 rifles AR-15 in Tucson and Phoenix that have traveled to Mexico." "It appears that the ATF could be one of the largest providers of assault rifles to the cartels in Mexico," he says.

The ATF employee who spoke to El Diario de El Paso on condition of anonymity could not say how many weapons involved in inquiries from the federal agency have been smuggled into Mexico, but felt that add up to 2 000 weapons for the past three years. "The ATF is not doing his work and perpetuates the problem (of illegal arms trafficking.) These weapons are killing their own citizens, their agents, "he said.

Reviews of "1desertrat" and other "bloggers," have even suggested that one of the weapons have been smuggled to the neighboring country was knowingly used to kill ATF agent Brian Terry Border Patrol in Nogales, Arizona, last 14 December. ATF spokesman in Washington, DC, Scott Thomasson, declined to comment, saying the investigation into this case, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, for its acronym in English). She rejected the alleged claims made against the federal agency that, during his research allows the smuggling of weapons into Mexico. "We do not permit the exit of arms to Mexico," he said.

The test is said, the project that launched Gunrunner United States and Mexico to reduce smuggling of weapons, which includes a database to track the origin of those who are seized in Mexico. Reported that from 2006 to date, only the ATF has produced 4 000 500 investigations and seized on U.S. soil 10 000 weapons and ammunition near a million before reaching Mexico. Furthermore, "working with Mexican authorities very closely," said Thomasson. He said the binational collaboration is so close that the ATF is coordinated, when "appropriate", with Mexican authorities in investigations into arms trafficking.

In late 2010 the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice released a report that analyzes the project Gunrunner, indicating that the ATF does not share information with other federal agencies, and communicates effectively with Mexican officials. "The federal agency does not share intelligence in a systematic and consistent with its sister agencies in Mexico and the United States," the report said. Including the offices of the Enforcement of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

However, Thomasson said there was a "good coordination" with the last two federal agencies regarding the investigation of arms smuggling. The "bloggers," by CleanUpATF.org Gunrunner have labeled the project as "a joke", acknowledging also that ATF agents allegedly "inflated" the seizure of weapons. "New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Los Angeles have never been committed to the idea of stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico. The money for this mission has been wasted and the operators in those divisions have been instructed to report any incident / investigation, no matter how far away is the Gunrunner "writes" bloquista "" X-Men. "

"It seems that the administration of ATF prefer lying to Congress, falsifying figures and altering the numbers instead of doing the job," continues the text. The ATF employee who spoke to The Journal of El Paso agreed to this, explaining that agents allegedly sometimes write in their reports weapons confiscated, even by local police, without even an investigation. This justifies the budget that the agency receives each year, he added.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The El Diario de El Paso is the primary Spanish-language newspaper for the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas. The paper was founded on May 16, 2005 by El Diario de Juárez. It originally started out as a Mexican newspaper circulated throughout Ciudad Juárez under the name Diario de Juárez. In 1982 Diario de Juárez entered into the El Paso business community by opening a small sales and circulation office. The company became incorporated in Texas as Editora Paso del Norte, Inc..

The newspaper has a daily circulation of over 20,000 copies (100,000 readers) throughout El Paso. The paper is intended to reach young, active adults (target audience 18- 35) of Hispanic descent in El Paso.

Founded in February 1976, Diario de Juárez has grown from a 1,000-copy per day newspaper in Ciudad Juárez to now over 100,000 copies daily in Cd. Juárez, in the city of Chihuahua and throughout the state of Chihuahua. Today, El Diario is the fourth largest newspaper in Mexico. -- Wikipedia.

The Spanish language newspaper El Diario de El Paso has published a story on "Project Gunwalker." Per the Google Translate link of the story appearing on the El Diario de Chihuahua website:

Contrary to its policy to stop it, America would be allowing the smuggling of firearms into Mexico intentionally during investigations conducted and the neighboring country without knowing it.

This is one of the allegations have emerged recently in a network by employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (ATF, for its acronym in English), dissatisfied with irregularities alleged to have committed the federal agency. The allegations of arms trafficking were ratified by a source in El Paso.

One of the ATF sources involved with “Project Gunwalker” (allegations by insiders from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that bureau management allowed guns to be transported across the border into Mexico and kept the authorities there in the dark) indicates management pressure is now being brought to bear against at least one suspected whistleblower.

I am told that an agent in Phoenix has gone on record that he is cooperating with the Judiciary Committee, that the ATF office there is retaliating, and that he needs help. I am told the best way to provide that help is for the media to call Grassley’s office and then run with what they are told.

I am told Sen. Grassley’s office has sent a letter to the acting ATF Director’s office and that the Associated Press has a copy of it—so that’s a question for reporters to ask Grassley’s people, as well as their AP colleagues.

I cannot stress enough to our readers: Get in touch with your Senators and Congressmen and demand hearings on the Project Gunwalker scandal, or as the Senate has now named it, the Brian Terry Whistleblower Case. Even if you've done it before, do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. Keep hounding them until they put the hearings on the schedule.

First, the ATF report was written by attorneys, as the footnotes indicate---and does the focus on legalistics, with only a brief nod to cultural issues. Except what screams out is: "We, the Government, are becoming increasingly alarmed and excited at the quality and firepower of guns that have developed within the past decade or so, which are in civilian hands, because only the Police should have those kinds of weapons." That's the theme, and the demonization proceeds from there, as I'll describe in part below.

The ATF shotgun study---apart from the importability and "sporting use" criteria it already appears to have established, and is only on the verge of being implemented after a window dressing "comment" period that expires May 1, 2011---appears to seek to disestablish, discourage or eliminate certain connections between military technology and its application to civilian use, as well as to firearms. Consider the example of the laser sight. "No sporting purpose?" Well, a laser sight makes aiming at critters (rabbits, ground hogs, raccoons, snakes, you name it) a lot easier, efficient, and practical than using iron sights or perhaps even a scope in some instances. Consider also the notion that a firearm which is "a semiautomatic version of a machinegun" (page 9 of the ATF study) is inherently bad. What does that mean? In my judgment, it means demonizing such guns, even though their ballistic features do not differ from other guns---but it sure does imply that folks who are interested in such guns are bad citizens. It sure does look like such demonization will economically harm the manufacturers who produce such guns, because of the demand for them --- people who cannot, for economic reasons, and the fact there are only about 190,000 available for transfer to civilians -- own machine guns, who want to experience the heft and feel and image of owning one, are now transformed into implied threats. Sounds like a great way to revive the economy.

Similarly, under the criteria of "the ability to accept a detachable magazine," consider what may be the most common and popular semiautomatic rifle in the United States --- the Ruger 10/22. I guess that rifle would be unimportable (in D.C., it is actually classified as a "machine gun" owing to the passage of legally incorrect legislation in 1930. It is now 2011 and that law is still on the books, even though the Ruger 10/22 is NOT a machine gun). This is what happens when flawed laws get passed.

Second, the ATF report gives short shrift given to social and cultural conditions in the firearm sports world. Note that the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA), the one group that may interfere with ATF's immediate objectives in banning the importation of certain shotguns is disregarded --- even though the activities (3-gun competitions) necessarily use shotguns! Specifically: "Because a determination on the sporting purpose of practical shooting events should be made only after an in-depth study of those events, the working group determined that it was not appropriate to use this shotgun study to make a definitive conclusion as to whether practical shooting events are 'sporting' for purposes of section 925(d)(3)." (see page 13 of the ATF study). Because USPSA concerns are inconvenient, ATF refuses to consider them "in this study," which is going to be the basis for banning the importation of a bunch of shotguns.

Third, it is difficult to conclude that whatever restrictions ATF imposes on the importation of shotguns in the United States, will NOT soon have bad effects upon manufacturers of certain shotguns in the United States, as well as folks who gussy up their shotguns on an aftermarket basis. Again, consider the size of the industry and the potential economic impacts --- again, great way to revive the economy (that was sarcasm). It would make too long a message to go through each of the "bad" features that ATF is demonizing, and I'm sure each of you have picked up on others in addition to the ones that I described briefly above.

Fourth, I think this is a deliberate effort at social engineering by the Government, with respect to limiting or banning firearms civilians are allowed to own, that is only just starting. It is nothing less than an assault on an aspect of our culture, which includes military traditions and interests. There's nobody with even a pea for a brain who believes that the sale of surplus and reproduction military gear in Shotgun News or the innumerable gun shows reflects anything but some combination of (1) wanting reliable tools, ammunition, clothes, boots, firearms, knives, tents, parachute cord, etc. for legitimate use in camping and hunting activities, (2) enjoying the historical nostalgia and, perhaps, military service, that is occasioned by owing such items, and (3) having those interests form the basis for other associations with collectors, hunters, campers --- sheesh.

Finally, I see a huge rural/urban issue here, which might be usefully informed by education. Millions of kids who have grown up in urban areas have had virtually no exposure to the outdoors and sport and hunting and camping worlds, and hence can't imagine that context for the use of firearms. To a fellow sitting on his owned 5 or 10 or 50 or 80 or 160 or more acres of land, who wants to go out into the woods he owns and shoot or hunt or target practice, the people who clamor that he should be prohibited from owning a laser sight, or semiautomatic copy of a machinegun, and by implication is a terrorist if he owns a ghillie suit (much less a silencer for his firearms because he doesn't wish to disturb his neighbors), those clamoring people are nothing short of crazy themselves. What on Earth is wrong with owing and using a high-capacity magazine for legal and legitimate purposes on one's own land? This is a bad combination that is guaranteed to produce explosive confrontations, every bit as and probably much more than we have seen so far.

I think you're going to see the White House publish some trace data in the next week or two, and use that as a starting point for a broad use of Executive Branch power to try and force agencies to more strictly regulate and prohibit certain guns, because the Congress is unwilling to do so. Obama has to do this to appeal to his extreme left-wing liberal constituency, which sees him as a failure in this area, and if he doesn't they won't renominate him in 2012. This is going to get mighty ugly. It is also one of the STUPIDEST things I think Obama could do --- people are really angry that the Government allowed a bunch of thieving bankers to walk away unscathed; to keep what amounts to fraudulently obtained/stolen money; and bailed the thieving bankers out --- while letting THEM economically dissipate, losing houses, savings, 401(k)'s, and their jobs. Obama STILL doesn't get the jobs thing. When he starts messing around trying to make gun control a central issue at a time of serious economic hardship, the implication that the Government is going after private ownership of guns, is going to provoke a lot of hostilities, but that's just my view.

I apologize for the length of this message --- it could easily have been much longer. I hope it causes you all to think hard about these issues, and that it may contribute to some discussions and ways to constructive address what surely are going to be some preposterous activities by ATF and the White House.

One strong ray of hope --- the Heller decision. Maybe the decision that a person has a constitutional right to own a handgun in one's home for purposes of self-defense, will point the way towards eliminating the "sporting purpose" requirement, which is what needs to happen to call off the ATF jackals. In the meantime, I trust the "comment period" will also accomplishe an Obama purpose --- to stick the licked ATF finger in the wind to see which way it blows or not, which is undoubtedly better than ATF's traditional practice of "announcing" or "making available" a Ruling without bothering to consult firearms industry and other folks who will unquestionably be affected by the planned demonizing of guns and accessories.

The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples[3] or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe. Described by some historians as a revolutionary wave, the period of unrest began in France and then, further propelled by the French Revolution of 1848, soon spread to the rest of Europe.

Although most of the revolutions were quickly put down, there was a significant amount of violence in many areas, with tens of thousands of people tortured and/or killed. While the immediate political effects of the revolutions were largely reversed, the long-term reverberations of the events were far-reaching. -- Wikipedia.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

So I was in Nashville with a buddy to attend an archaeological meeting today, but last night we got together with Oleg Volk and a couple of Sipsey Street Irregulars at one of Oleg's favorite restaurants, Cafe Bosna, operated by a wonderful lady who fled Bosnia's awful civil war some years ago and settled in Nashville.

When you view the video below (which I found when I did a search a few minutes ago) you will think he's certainly over-doing the experience. He's not. It was outstanding. Simply outstanding.

Here's the address and phone number.

Cafe Bosna5751 Old Hickory BlvdHermitage, TN 37076(615) 889-7008

If you're ever in Nashville, give them a try. (And, no, we didn't eat free and they didn't pay me to write this.)

Several years ago I was taking part in a bass tournament in southern Florida and we were surprised to see two well-equipped bass boats approaching us at high speed. Pulling a quick maneuver they shot by our boat and threw a sheet of water over us. I sat there dumbfounded at what had just sped by us. The bass fishing machines were not colored in the usual gaudy colors and no fishing rods were to be seen in the boats. They were painted in a dull camouflage pattern and mounted on the bow of each boat was a 30-caliber machine gun manned by a gunner who was also dressed in camo.

“What in the H—- was that,” I asked my companion who hailed from a local bass club. “That’s just some of our local friends showing off their toys, he replied. Their mounted machine gun is a legal, semi-automatic version of the old familiar Browning gun and these guys are part of a para-military group that fancies themselves as being a Red Neck Navy. Their group of ground troops is probably hidden back there in the swamp laughing at us right now.”

You know, Hermann Goering was real big on "sporting purposes." He was a BIG hunter. That didn't mean he wanted firearms in the hands of Jews or anti-Nazis. In fact, as well documented by JPFO, the whole "sporting purpose" bullshit was imported to American law only in 1968 from the Nazi gun control laws by Senator Thomas Dodd, who had been a Nuremberg prosecutor.

Goering and Dodd are likely burning brightly in hell at this moment, chatting between screams about the sick joke of "sporting purposes."

If the ATF or anybody else thinks the Three Percenters are going to obey whatever new diktat they come up with, well, they can join Hermann and Tom and chat about "sporting purposes." For our part, we will resist any new infringements on our property, our liberty and our lives, by whatever means appropriate and necessary.

End of story, or the beginning of civil war.

Your choice, Obamanoids.

Mike VanderboeghThe alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Stopped by the Carnton mansion in Franklin to return a wrought-iron basement window bar that had been stolen by an ethically-challenged young man in the late 70s and had been reposing in Alabama all this time. The guy who stole it died not long after, and the private collector who inherited it decided it was past time to return it.

While there, we stopped at the Confederate cemetery and strolled through the monuments. Was pleased to see that the Alabama state marker to the 129 men and boys from my state who died there was the only one with flowers -- artificial red roses -- placed at its foot. I was aghast, however, to find how developed the battlefield has become. Get this: there are tennis courts located slap up aginst the cemetery boundary. Shameful.

As the next firearm, magazine and ammunition stockpiling frenzy begins, heralded by the announced drive for another AWB, here's a question:

Are people spending their hard-earned money in the middle of a semi-depression on extended magazines and semi-auto weapons of military utility just to turn them OVER to politicians after they ban them, or to turn them ON said politicians after they ban them?

William Jennings Bryan, my Lebanese-born, fully-Americanized Econ 101 professor at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, taught me that except in decisions involving love or sex that all economic transactions are rational.

Puzzle the rationality of that question --- turn them over, or turn them on?

The Clintonistas were frightened by the millions of rifles that were purchased in anticipation of the first AWB. The Obamanoids should be too.

Bearish points are headlined by still-rising food stamp participation, with gun sales and rampant buying of silver coins underpinning continued popular concerns over personal security and the soundness of the dollar. Food inflation also features on this list.

The blade's distinctive forward drop is intended to act as a weight on the end of the blade and make the Kukri fall on the target faster and with more power. Although a popular legend states that a Gurkha "never sheathes his blade without first drawing blood", the Kukri is most commonly employed as a multi-use utility tool rather like a machete. The Kukri also has a religious significance in the Nepali form of the Hindu religion. During the annual Dashain festival Kukris are ceremonially blessed.

An attacking weapon, the Kukri is effective both as a chopping or slashing weapon. In combat, it is basically used in three different styles: stabbing with the point, slashing or chopping with the edge, and (rarely) throwing. Because it has an angular blade bending towards the opponent, the user need not create an angle in the wrist, which makes a Kukri more comfortable as a stabbing weapon than other straight-bladed knives. Its heavy blade enables the user to inflict deep wounds and to cut through muscle and bone. Gurkhas were known for using the Kukri to chop off an enemy soldier's head with one stroke.

While most famed from use in the military, the Kukri is most commonly used as a woodcutting and general purpose tool, and is a very common agricultural and household implement in Nepal. Its use has varied from building, clearing, chopping firewood, and digging to cutting meat and vegetables, skinning animals, and opening tins. -- Wikipedia.

Gorkha soldiers have long been known the world over for their valor and these khukuri-wielding warriors winning the British many a battle have become folklore.

A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government.

A Gurkha officer of the Gurkha Contingent, Singapore Police Force patrols around Raffles City during the 117th IOC Session. He wears the distinctively tilted Hat Terrai Gurkha, and the kukri can be seen affixed to the back of his belt.

And here's a recent story from Afghanistan: "As a Gurkha is disciplined for beheading a Taliban: Thank God they are on our side!"

David and I have been called a lot of names since we started this, even by alleged gun rights bloggers like General Sebastian Snowflake who called me "a clown." At least I'm a clown that whistleblowers trust enough to talk to.

Also, right after David posted his Examiner column above, a reader named Nicholas Dixon provided his own independent corroboration David's post.

I've called the offices of Chambliss, Grassley, and Sessions. Unfortunately the only time between my classes I have available is 11-12, when all the staffer's are in meetings or going to lunch(in DC time). But I did receive a call back from Chambliss' office, their name for it is the Brian Terry Whistleblower case.

Codrea commented:

Thank you Mr. Dixon. This is now an independent corroboration that such discussions are taking place. Reporters take note.

And, in an email to me he added:

Figures they wouldn't want to use "Project Gunwalker"...:)

So, when contacting your Congresscritters about Project Gunwalker, please refer to the official name, "The Brian Terry Whistleblower Case."

Irregular JR sends us this link to a WaPo story on domestic drones. And he adds, "Make sure you see the sidebar too." Some attention should be paid to early warning/target acquisition and operational ceilings with an eye to countermeasures -- small drones are forced by overhead cover (trees and urban environments) to come down lower to get side shot images in natural and urban canyons, thus the lower flying models might be handled by a smartly operated 10 gauge, for example. Thoughts?

I've been asked by readers, and some reporters, what I thought of the "State of the Union" address. Well, first of all, I didn't watch it. I went to bed before it started because I'm dealing with some health setbacks and I needed the sleep more than I needed the aggravation.

Also, I no longer pay attention to what politicians of any party say, only what they do.

New budget estimates Wednesday paint a grim picture of the nation’s fiscal state, with the government on pace to rack-up back-to-back deficits totaling $2.58 trillion over the life of this new Congress.

If there is one big takeaway from Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night, it is that this presidency remains in a complete state of denial regarding the massive threat the United States faces with its budget deficit. Obama’s speech was a major lost opportunity to address the number one menace to America’s long-term prosperity – the towering mountain of debt. Ironically, Obama’s head in the sand speech came just a day before the release of the Congressional Budget Office’s latest economic outlook, which revealed that the deficits generated under the Obama administration are the largest since 1945.

Obama in a state of denial? Make that damn near the entire country.

Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon where the diving airplane, defying gravity and inertia, stops just short of the ground because, as Bugs explains, it "ran out of gas"? That ain't gonna happen here. In the grand scheme of things, as historians will later conclude, Obama's "State of the Union" speech is nothing more than monstrously sick joke.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

“We strongly believe we took down the entire organization from top to bottom that operated out of the Phoenix area,” said William Newell, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Phoenix field division. “The investigation is further proof of the relentless efforts by Mexican drug cartels, especially the Sinaloa cartel, to illegally acquire large quantities of firearms in Arizona and elsewhere for use in the ongoing Mexican drug war,” he added.

Well, if that's true then ATF was just removing the gunrunning competition with this bust so they could have the field all to themselves.

You can bet your ass it is. But, you know what trumps a fix at Main Justice? Whistle blowers under oath at a Congressional hearing. Read the article and you will understand why the ATF agents in Project Gunwalker were unwilling to trust the internal integrity system and why we insisted that Senators Grassley and Sessions contact them.

MikeIII

Holder’s announcement on Christmas Eve that he was appointing Robin Ashton as the new head of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) went virtually unnoticed in the press, other than a highly complimentary article in the Washington Post.

That’s unfortunate, considering how important this position is. OPR investigates ethics violations by Justice Department lawyers. It should be headed by someone who does not place partisanship above the law, and who has the highest ethical standards and a sterling reputation. Robin Ashton does not fit that bill. Indeed, Ashton’s antics at DOJ have often been so petty and juvenile that she should be disqualified from serving in any career leadership position at Justice, much less the one responsible for enforcing ethical standards.

Why, given the well-deserved black eye that OPR has suffered over the last year for its politically tilted investigations, would Holder appoint a hyper-Democratic loyalist such as Ashton to run the office? Perhaps because the über-political Holder wants to solidify the liberal bias that already pervades OPR and thereby ensure that the political machinations of his minions are glossed over (if not outright ignored). . .

Ashton’s bad reputation goes beyond partisan grievance. Two former directors of EOUSA were interviewed in 2006 by the House Judiciary Committee during its investigation of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. According to someone familiar with the entire transcripts of those interviews (which are not public), the directors were scathing in their criticism. Ashton reportedly would go through the desk of one former director, Mary Beth Buchanan, when she was out of the office, rifling through confidential files and documents. Ashton was also characterized by former colleagues as completely untrustworthy — someone who treated subordinates like chattel while she did everything possible to ingratiate herself with her bosses, often claiming credit for work that others had done. This sounds more like the behavior of a less-than-stellar high-school student than that of a DOJ lawyer.

Ashton’s political loyalties were demonstrated emphatically by her request to be detailed to the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, one of the fiercest and most partisan liberal Democrats in the Senate. The Justice Department acquiesced to Ashton’s request and actually paid her salary while she worked in Leahy’s office, helping him attack the Bush administration’s Justice Department. As one Justice Department lawyer who worked with Ashton told me, “You don’t do a detail with Patrick Leahy if you’re not a committed, solid Democrat whose political loyalty Leahy would never question.” . .

“Given her partisan instincts and the loyalty she feels to the current attorney general,” one former DOJ lawyer told me, “there is no way that Robin Ashton will allow any report to come out that criticizes Eric Holder or his deputies.” Moreover, the lawyers in OPR and the IG’s office know that from a standpoint of professional advancement within Justice, their own careers would suffer if they came out with such a report.

To add insult to injury, Attorney General Holder, in an interview in the New York Times, improperly (and unprofessionally) commented on the open investigation of the New Black Panther Party case, saying, “There is no there there.” He also called the investigation of the hostility to racially neutral enforcement of the law in the Civil Rights Division a “made-up controversy.” Thus, the lawyers in OPR have been told by their attorney general what their conclusions should be in these investigations — never mind what facts they uncover.

Just to reinforce the message that Ashton will have a free hand to cover up the department’s wrongdoing, President Obama has given a recess appointment to Holder friend and administration loyalist James Cole to be the deputy attorney general, the number-two slot at Justice. It is Cole’s office that would review Ashton’s report on the results of OPR’s investigation into the Civil Rights Division.

The final element of the fix is that on January 18, Holder announced he was forming a new “Professional Misconduct Review Unit” that will be responsible for “all disciplinary and state-bar referral actions relating to OPR findings of professional misconduct.” In other words, even in the unlikely event that OPR finds misconduct, this new unit will decide whether to notify state bar authorities of OPR’s report. And whom did Holder put in charge of the new unit? Why, his loyal former chief of staff (and Obama campaign contributor) Kevin Ohlson.

Heckuva lot cheaper than giving away AR mags like the Atlanta RTC boys did the other day.

From an email addressed to firearm rights bloggers this morning:

Gentlemen,

Let me introduce myself briefly. I read all your blogs, and sometimes I comment as oldsmobile98.

I know you are all aware of the renewed attempt by the statists to put in place a restriction on magazine capacity. I've decided to give away some 20-round mags to some of my friends who don't have any, just to send a message, and perhaps to "set brush fires in people's minds".

Here is my updated status on Facebook:

"In light of the folks (Carolyn McCarthy, Dick Cheney, Peggy Noonan, (James) Brady, and dozens more) willing to use the awful Tucson murders to try to take away more liberties from Americans, I am giving away five politically-incorrect, full-capacity G3 magazines that they wish were illegal."

The first five local people to comment below that status and request a mag will get one (limit one per household). I'm not giving any to people who already have at least one full-cap mag, and I'm not giving any to hoplophobes who will immediately turn and destroy it.

20-round G3 mags are the cheapest out there (as far as I know). Cheaper Than Dirt has the steel ones for $1.97 each before shipping,and various other websites have G3 mags for three or four bucks each. CTD had the aluminum ones for $0.97 each, but those are, as of yesterday, out of stock.

Anyway, I thought it might be a good way for Threepers to accomplish a few things with a nominal investment:

(1) Show goodwill to open-minded folks who don't own guns and give them a tangible reminder of what they are missing out on.

(2) Give target shooters and hunters a politically incorrect item and remind them that our rights are under attack.

I have my doubts that her bill will be passed into law, but if it is, it will be easy for anyone with a $2 G3 mag and a spine to cross the Rubicon and take a meaningful step of resistance. All they have to do is sell their one mag or give it to a friend or neighbor. I know this sounds like small potatoes, but crossing that psychological barrier of breaking an unjust and unconstitutional law is an act that that could embolden them and lead to more meaningful actions in the future. "Fromsmall acorns grow great oaks."

Anyhow, each recipient of one of the five mags I'm giving away will simultaneously receive my encouragement to transfer it, by sale or by gift, if McCarthy's bill is passed. I will NOT, however, include along with the mag a shoulder thing that goes up, as those are truly dangerous.

If you feel this is a good idea, please feel free to participate and/or to pass it on to your readers. About $25 will get you five G3 mags shipped to your door from a few different websites (I'm not getting any kickbacks from CTD or anybody else). Let me know if you want more info on places to get these, but CTD seems the cheapest fornow; unless, of course, you decide to go big, in which case robertrtg.com has a beater pack of 104 mags for $89. For the purposes of this endeavor it is not essential that the mags be in good condition (or even functional, for that matter), even though most of them can be cleaned up with a little TLC.

Last things: Please remember that there are already laws in place in some locales which ban the possession of these. Stay smart and stay safe, and please remind your readers of these laws so they don't get thrown in jail. And let's not give away any to people who are simply going to trash them out of spite.

Thank you, each of you, for what you do.

Feel free to send this on to any compatriots, but please redact my email address if you will.

President Richard Nixon: "You think, you think we want to, want to go this route now? And the--let it hang out, so to speak?"

White House Counsel John Dean: "Well, it's, it isn't really that--"

Bob Haldeman: "It's a limited hang out."

Dean: "It's a limited hang out."

John Ehrlichman: "It's a modified limited hang out."

Nixon: "Well, it's only the questions of the thing hanging out publicly or privately."

-- Watergate Tapes, 22 March 1973 meeting between Richard Nixon, John Dean, John Ehrlichman, John Mitchell, and H.R. Haldeman.

A limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details. It takes the form of deception, misdirection, or coverup often associated with intelligence agencies involving a release or "mea culpa" type of confession of only part of a set of previously hidden sensitive information, that establishes credibility for the one releasing the information who by the very act of confession appears to be "coming clean" and acting with integrity; but in actuality, by withholding key facts, is protecting a deeper operation and those who could be exposed if the whole truth came out. In effect, if an array of offenses or misdeeds is suspected, this confession admits to a lesser offense while covering up the greater ones. -- Wikipedia.

Confirmed with two reporters that there will be a press conference at 10 a.m. at ATF in Phoenix. It will be all about how Project Gunrunner is protecting us from the evil American gun dealers. Presumably they won't be bragging about "walking" the rifle south that killed BPA Terry. Whether they have a "modified limited hangout" ready remains to be seen.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) procures and stores pre-packaged commercial meals to support readiness capability for immediate distribution to disaster survivors routinely. The purpose of this Request for Information is to identify sources of supply for meals in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M(illion) to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations. FEMA is considering the following specifications (14M meals per day):

Requested Menus to include snacks (i.e. fruit mix, candy, chocolate/peanut butter squeezers, drink mix, condiments, and utensils). All meals/kits must have 36 months of remaining shelf life upon delivery. Packaging should be environmentally friendly.

When Germans came into Poland, Poles made no more sporting shotguns. They made Sten clones. When Russians went into Chechniya, Chechens made no sporting shotguns, either. They made various submachine guns. Should US anti-gun creatures succeed in driving regular rifles and shotguns out of legal circulation, they will see more submachine guns as well. Sound suppressors would reduce the risk of discovery by authorities as well as the muzzle blast, so having a silenced gun would be safer for the user. Seems to me that the American anti-gun activists don't understand just how simple open-bolt weapons really are.

One of the commenters at Oleg's site has thoughtfully posted this link to produce the homemade SMG illustrated above.

Making barrels with a CNC machine.

In a country where machine shops (and even CNC machines)are in every little town and hamlet, "banning" anything made of metal is foolish. And that includes thirty round magazines, Peggy Noonan.

Maybe next time Obama gets to Beijing, someone can sneak in Jim Daleo's song written to the tune of "The Wreck of the Old 97." Jim completed 86 combat missions in Korea, flying P-51 Mustangs and F-86's. A flight leader in the 509th Fighter Bomber Squadron, he was killed in the crash of an F-86F while on landing approach at Langley AFB, VA., 7 September 1954.

It's a long, long road from Pusan to Pyong-yangAnd the mountains are high and wideIf my engine quits, you can write off a MustangCause I'm fixing to go over the side!

Col. McBride led his boys on a missionand the Chinks started throwing up flakHe said, "Gun 'em up, boys, and we'll clean out our engines,And the drinks are on the last one to get back."

Close support is a damn fine sortieCause you work so close to the troopsYou get hit twelve times by a 20 or a HEAnd your engine coughs and sputters and poops

So you hit the silk and you land in a meadowAnd the Chinks start blazing awayAnd a 'copter comes along and picks up your elbowRegistration boys will find the rest some day.

It's a damn fine war and I love every missionAnd I guess I'm Here to stayBut I'd rather shag a broad by suggestive coitionOr catch the clap in old Santa Fe.

1. A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the military, the police, or a belligerent group.

2. A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity.

3. A specialist in Roman or civil law.

adj.

Of or relating to civilians or civil life; nonmilitary: civilian clothes; a civilian career. -- American Heritage Dictionary.

Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan who Pete at WRSA rightly calls a Filthy Menopausal Collectivist RINO, has chimed in on the subject of military magazines for semi-auto rifles and pistols in this op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. The offending snippet:

Here are three things (Obama) can do in the speech that would be surprising, shrewd, centrist and good policy. The first may seem small but is not. Normal people are not afraid of a lowering of discourse in political speech. They don't like it, but it's not keeping them up nights. Normal people are afraid of nuts with guns. That keeps them up nights. They know our society has grown more broken, families more sundered, our culture more degraded, and they fear it is producing more lost and disturbed young people. They fear those young people walking into a school or a mall with a semiautomatic pistol with an extended clip.

What civilian needs a pistol with a magazine that loads 33 bullets and allows you to kill that many people without even stopping to reload? No one but people with bad intent. Those clips were banned once; the president should call for reimposing the ban. The Republican Party will not go to the wall to defend extended clips. The problem is the Democratic Party, which overreached after the assassinations of the 1960s, talked about banning all handguns, and suffered a lasting political setback. Now Democrats are so spooked they won't even move forward on small and obvious things like this. The president should seize the moment and come out strong for a ban.

Now I've never met Peggy Noonan and she's never met me, but if she's willing to pronounce me a person of "bad intent" then I'm comfortable with that characterization.

Let's skip over the whole "clip" vs. "magazine" terminology ignorance, though Noonan uses them interchangeably, and get to the point.

Noonan asks: "What civilian needs a pistol with a magazine that loads 33 bullets and allows you to kill that many people without even stopping to reload?"

There is more than one arrogant presumption in that sentence. The first is that she, Noonan, has the right to define what our "need" is. She doesn't.

The second is that the natural, God-given and inalienable rights codified in the Second Amendment are subject to her agreement upon that Mandarin opinion of "need." She might as well ask, "What civilian needs two laptops?" Or, who needs two cellular phones? Two cars? Two websites?

Third is the characterization of the armed citizenry as mere "civilians." We are not. We are the Unorganized Militia of the various states. The presumption is that only a member of the military or police is qualified to have a magazine of more than ten rounds. The 1775 equivalent would have been to advocate that only the King's troops could carry a full ammunition pouch because only they were "competent" and could be trusted to use firepower wisely. What Noonan is buying into here, without explicitly saying it, is that only the federal government should have a "monopoly of force." Let us hope her proposal doesn't get adopted into law, because then we'll have to test that theory and Noonan won't like where THAT goes.

Then Noonan answers her own question:

No one but people with bad intent.

Of course the real answer depends upon the situation. What if you substitute the following for "people"?

"Gang bangers bashing in your front door."

"Hooded Ku Klux Klansmen with guns and a rope in your front yard."

"Nazi Einsatzgruppen murderers wanting to put you on a train."

"A Khmer Rouge 'relocation' team in your village."

Those are all sub-categories of "people." Does Noonan believe that anyone who defends themselves against such "people" are persons of "bad intent"?

There is no house rule that says that tyranny cannot come to America. If and when it does, I want to be able to kill as many of those classes of people as I can without reloading. More to the point, I will not give up the military magazines I have, nor will I be restrained by any unconstitutional law forbidding their possession, manufacture, or sale.

Then Noonan calls for a ban:

Those clips were banned once; the president should call for reimposing the ban.

Now of course the last time they did that, the law only forbade their manufacture and importation. Not even Chucky Schumer was stupid enough to try to confiscate those already in the hands of the armed citizenry. If they had, we would've had a shooting civil war by 1996. I do not know, given Noonan's apparent ignorance of all things firearm, if she is merely advocating the original AWB or something more draconian. Perhaps she doesn't either.

But there is one thing she is dead right about:

The Republican Party will not go to the wall to defend extended clips.

Well, no matter. If they do, the Three Percenters will disobey any further infringements they come up with.

And if that makes me -- and my considerable circle of friends and acquaintances -- persons of "bad intent" then so be it.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The nation's top border and customs official promised Friday to "restore the rule of law" to the U.S.-Mexico border and prosecute those responsible for the slaying of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in southern Arizona.

"We will bring the murderers to justice, and we will support the federal law enforcement authorities and the United States attorney to see that justice is done in this case," Alan Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, declared at a memorial service for the agent at a Tucson sports stadium. No homicide charges have been brought against the four men arrested in Terry's slaying, and a fifth suspect remains at large.

"We will finish the job that Brian participated in," Bersin said. "We are determined to restore the rule of law to the United States-Mexico border."

Bersin's pledge contrasted with statements by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano just after Terry's death Dec. 14 that the U.S. frontier is largely secure — a declaration that has elicited anger and ridicule in much of Arizona, where Napolitano served as governor.

When I worked the Mexican border with the Minutemen in the Hachita, NM sector in October 2005, I got to meet more than a few Border Patrol agents. They were uniformly good, even brave, men trying to do a dangerous task unsupported by an administration that didn't want them to effectively do their jobs. My prayers continue to be with the Terry family as they suffer through this agony. But . . .

The spectacle of Alan Bersin promising "to restore the rule of law to the United States-Mexico border" is just too cynically hypocritical by half. ICE's own on-going investigation of the weapon that killed Brian Terry demonstrated that it was one of the ATF "walked" rifles. Bersin knows this. By now he knows all about Project Gunwalker. If he truly wants to restore the "rule of law," he should start with the SAC and ASAC of the Phoenix ATF office, and their bosses in DC who, despite red flags raised by ATF street agents, smuggled the gun that killed a brave man in his country's service. But that would take far more moral courage than pious platitudes at a dead man's memorial service.

There are actually four separate but connected accusations against ATF officials: First, that they intentionally arranged to have hundreds of firearms "walked" across the U.S. border into Mexico. Second, that they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners. Third, that they intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government. Fourth, that one of the guns ATF allowed or helped to be smuggled into Mexico was involved in the death of Agent Terry.

As strange as it is for me to say it, I very much hope he is wrong about this being the "death knell" of ATF -- with its constituent parts being parceled out to other agencies. I very much prefer the the devil I know in rehab than the devil I don't and the prospect of giving the enforcement of America's gun laws (which aren't going away anytime soon) and ATF personnel to Janet Napolitano so she can work them as political police bully boys -- and if you want to talk about uncontrolled and unaccountable there is no worse offender than DHS (thank you George Bush, you sod)-- concerns me greatly.

Absent the abolishment of the federal interest in firearms regulation -- which is a distant prospect at best -- I would rather see hearings, firings, prosecutions and an ATF that at the end of this long day operates according to law, not an agenda, and whose rules, regs and testing procedures are both clear and transparent.

That would, at the least, buy us more time. And time -- to prepare, to train, to organize a credible deterrent to tyranny -- is precious.

In any case, the armed citizenry should continue to prepare for whatever comes.

The Weeks case is interesting for the light it sheds on “straw purchases,” meaning the purchase of firearms by buyers with clean records on behalf of felons or others who are legally ineligible to buy them. Mr. Weeks did not avail himself of the services of a straw purchaser; he bought his guns with a falsified Indiana identification card because he himself was under investigation for being a straw purchaser, a gun bought by him having been found to have been used in an armed robbery. You will not be surprised to learn that this was not Weeks’s first encounter with the law. And yet he was out and about, with nobody keeping an eye on him, though thousands of government employees are deployed to monitor the actions of law-abiding, federally licensed firearms retailers. That is what I mean by anti-policing.

The truth is that law enforcement is fundamentally unserious about prosecuting straw purchasers, and about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals broadly speaking. Doing so is, to put it bluntly, too much work for a unionized American government work force, whose idea of a good anti-gun program is the buyback: offering up taxpayers’ dollars in the hopes that criminals will bring the guns to them. (Way to work that shoe-leather, Joe Friday.) From the police’s point of view, criminals are an inconsiderate bunch: no fixed address, very little record keeping, no scheduled hours of operation, etc. Criminals do not keep appointments or offer even minimal cooperation. It is a lot of work keeping tabs on a Carail Weeks, or on an Eric DeShawn Floyd, a felon with at least 17 priors on his rap sheet who was involved in the fatal shooting of Philadelphia police sergeant Stephen Liczbinski during a botched bank robbery. (I wrote about the case here.) It’s a real challenge. Some cops are heroes; 100 percent of them are government employees.

Which is why Traver and the other gun-control types have focused their attention instead on gun dealers, provoking sufficient controversy to distract the public from such uncomfortable questions as: “Why exactly was a felon with a 17-count criminal history walking abroad to rob and murder?” . . .

The truth is that all these lavishly recompensed and richly pensioned cops and lawyers on our public payrolls have neither the will nor the wit to keep up with the most dangerous and dedicated sort of criminals, for the reasons catalogued above. Criminals are a pain in the butt by definition. Gun dealers, on the other hand, largely are law-abiding citizens by definition. (Try getting a dealer’s license if you’ve got a criminal record.) Gun dealers keep lavishly detailed records. They usually operate out of a fixed place of business and keep regular business hours. They will accept and keep an appointment, and most of them are quite keen on cooperating with law-enforcement authorities on all matters related to their business. They pay taxes and have phone numbers in the Yellow Pages. And that is why the Eliot Spitzers and Mayor Joneses of the world are coming down on them: because it is convenient to do so.

Which is to say, we treat law-abiding citizens like criminals because they are law-abiding citizens, not criminals. It is hard to keep up with the Weekses and Floyds and sundry trash of this world, but it is really easy to get law-abiding citizens to abide by the law. They sort of do it all on their own. That is the kind of law enforcement that you can execute with a donut in one hand and a BlackBerry in the other, from a sedentary position, which is the preferred position of the publicly employed. And when you want to look like you’re doing something, you can always pass some more laws and watch with great satisfaction as law-abiding citizens abide them.

LATER: Be sure and see the letter from the ATF Association Board defending Traver in the comments section.)

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.